Hat's Not Right

Halloween.

Of course my theme had to be Halloween. I started brainstorming ...

And decided my project would be an illustration of a witch getting ready for a big night out on Halloween.

A did a couple of quick sketches and then turned to my artwork inspiration board on Pinterest for some last minute inspiration, http://pin.it/NwIq5CN, and found a few drawings that gave me what I needed.

Here's my inked drawing.

And here's my final illustration, inked and painted.

A few things I learned ...

First I'd like to say that I've always been terrified of watercolors. Being a graphic artist, the permanency of of these paints are terrible and has always made my heart rate increase and break into a sweat. But I'm happy that I overcame that fear and dove head first. I know I still need to practice but I'm happy with the overall end result.

Materials matter, they really do. My watercolors were pretty good but I didn't have a fountain pen and just used a felt tip pen I had. Also, paper plays a big role. I was working with an old sketchbook I hadn't used yet. I drew and inked and then realized it probably wasn't the best paper for watercolor. The paper would get wet pretty quickly if I used to much water and if I didn't use enough the paint would just sit there. Lesson learned.